1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to improvements in the golf club grip.
2. Description of Related Art
In playing golf, if the golf club grip is gripped with an excessive force, the ball can not fly over a large distance, and also it is difficult to accurately control the flying direction of the ball. In order to prevent the grip from being gripped with an excessive force, it is important to enhance the sense felt from the grip by the player, particularly the sense of fitness and sense of firmness when the grip is gripped. The term "sense of fitness" means a sense of touching the grip with the player's hands fitted therewith, and the term "sense of firmness" means a sense that the grip is gripped stably and reliably particularly when swinging the club. If either of these senses are lacking, the player is liable to grip the grip with an excessive gripping force due to a sense of instability.
It is thus desirable to construct the golf club grip so as to obtain both the sense of fitness and sense of firmness. With the prior art grip, however, it has been difficult to meet these demands at the same time.
For example, in a rubber grip the sense of fitness may be enhanced by using a rubber material having a low rubber hardness. To decrease the rubber hardness of the grip, however, causes the sense of firmness to be deteriorated. Contrarily, to increase the rubber hardness of the grip causes the sense of firmness to be increased. In this case, however, the sense of fitness will be deteriorated. Accordingly, in the prior art grip both the sense of fitness and sense of firmness can not be enhanced at the same time, that is, if it is intended to enhance either sense, the other sense is deteriorated.
Further, when swinging a golf club, the grip experiences a force tending to bring about its bending deformation, a force tending to bring about its torsional deformation with respect to its longitudinal axis and a tensile force tending to elongate it by pulling it in the direction of centrifugal force of the club. However, if the grip is actually greatly deformed by these forces, the player will tend to grip the grip with an excessive force due to the sense of instability. Therefore, the material of the grip should be selected to suppress the deformation of the grip as noted above as much as possible. With the prior art grip, however, it has been difficult to suppress the bending deformation, torsional deformation and elongative deformation at the same time.